memorization and answering questions

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Does anybody else get this in lecture classes? I can memorize a whole lecture, but there is no meaning attached to what is said for me-especially if it differs from the textbook. The difference in the wording of the 2 throws me off and I do not retain anything from either at that point-it's like they cancel each other out. When reading, I'm saying "but he never said anything about this, so he must not care whether or not we know it", and when playing the recording of the lecture I'm saying "but he left so much out!" I find myself at a loss of what I need to try to retain and what is important, but the differences cause all of it to kind of appear as random words being said/read. I just can't figure out what is important and what is not-the difference kind of causes it all to seem unimportant or too conflicting just because of a few words. I cannot answer questions over the things that were lectured on, because the questions always break it down differently and don't require the whole lecture as a response.

My other problem is when reading a book that has some sort of time limit-such as a teacher saying on Monday "Read 5 chapters by Wednesday". I just cannot comprehend it that fast. When trying to read at this rate, I'm no longer focused on comprehension, but then it becomes pointless to even read it. I get focused on just getting through what was assigned, but it's more like reading random words on the pages.

I can relate to what you're talking about.

Sometimes I feel as if I have to comprehend lectures
and information in textbooks at a very fast pace. I also
feel as if some people have alot more experience then
I do in being able to retain and remember more information
faster.

I know though that if I develop better study habits
and force myself to learn at a faster speed then what I'm
used to then things will work out. It's hard though to tell
myself to be faster at learning though because change
is bad. Sometimes I feel as if I have to force myself to
change and be more aware of critical thinking.

nobodyzdream ---

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your post! I needed to read this! My poor 11 year old son is having exactly this problem, but I don't think that he is able to put the problem into words as you did in your post. And I needed to read your post to understand what it is that he's going through. We just watched him fail a quiz in science (his favorite subject) because what he has read in the text and what he hears in the teacher's lectures seem to conflict. Once he knew EXACTLY what was expected of him, he got a perfect score.

I have often wondered if my son cannot attach "meaning" to lectures OR to what he reads. He can memorize like nobody's business, but to extrapolate meaning from things is difficult for him.

Therefore, I have a question for you. Under what circumstances do things make sense to you? If you are reading something out of choice, does that subject then have meaning for you? If it's your favorite subject in school, does reading texts in that subject make sense to you?

Thanks,

Kris

For me, if I'm reading something out of choice, then chances are it is something I am interested in and I can attach a lot of meaning to it through pictures (If I've seen movies, documentaries, or worked with it personally). I'm good in English, but not really because I'm reading the text and learning much-I just kind of know it, or catch it fast enough to where it doesn't matter a ton. I'm decent in Math, but it's also very repetitive. Currently, I'm in ethics class-that is the one that requires a lot of reading in a very short time. I'm VERY interested in it, but it's losing meaning as I'm on a time limit with my reading. You could literally throw any random word on the page, and that is all I'm getting out of it. Reading it over and over and over just trying to make some sense out of it, but with so very little time to read over this stuff, I just don't have the amount of time that it takes for me to actually sit down and gain any understanding of it. When not on a time limit, oddly, I read very quickly anyway. But, those are also personally picked topics of interest rather than a topic of interest being taught in a class I'm enjoying the actual class and all... a LOT... I'm just not doing well in it at all because I cannot make the connection from the words to their meanings in my mind.

When I'm learning something in a class I like a lot, I do okay. But not everything makes sense to me still, nor does it come easier to me. It's almost like I have a switch in my mind for comprehension, lol, and when I find out EXACTLY what I'm wanting to know, the switch turns to "off" for the rest of the class period.

Honestly, what helps me the most, is to figure out a way to turn something into a discussion with somebody I am comfortable with. If I can talk to my boyfriend about something in ethics class, I will retain it VERY well. If I can figure out how to work with it hands-on, that is awesome too It's one thing to watch somebody show you how to do a math problem, but with lots of hands on, that's where you're going to actually learn it from... except that example spins off into any subject I am learning. Hands-on and LOTS of discussion (hearing another's opinions about something and being able to dispute it with something I manage to recall from the book, or being able to discuss and agree with them, etc.-all of it has to be yanked back out of me before I actually grasp the meanings).

I can relate as well.
First a caveat: I am in grad school, where things are somewhat different. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

About the lectures:
Are you more of a visual learner/thinker than auditory? Could you have Central Auditory Processing Disorder? I have it mildly, and therefore I cannot trust anything from a lecture. I have to read it. It makes learning more of a challenge, I think, but still doable.

The important thing is you sound very committed and that should get you through the classes. One thing I learned in my five years of undergrad is that as long as you go to all the lectures and do all the assignments etc., you will pass the class. You may not get an A, but you will pass as long as you're reasonably intelligent.

About reading. I am in my second year of master's program and have yet to do all the assigned reading for any of my courses. What I do is figure out what the assignment the reading is for, then peruse the material for answers to the questions being asked in the assignment. It works for me now. That won't work for all classes of course, but it's a suggestion.

Another suggestion is to come up with a question that you want to know the answer to. Say you're interested in the ethics of violating children's rights as research subjects. Then read the assigned reading with the goal of trying to answer your burning question.

Sigh. I really need to get to my own work - studying for a quiz for my nursing research class

The hardest part about this is I can talk about ethics all day long. If my boyfriend explains what he learned in his ethics class, I have it nailed down... but that isn't what my ethics class is studying. We are currently reading "The Prince" by Machiavelli. Before this book, within 2 1/2 weeks we read all of Plato-"The Republic". Now, I can read these, if I have lots and lots of time to sit and reflect on what was talked about in the book, but the hard part comes with being on a time schedule. (Bear in mind I have 2 kiddos and 3 other classes with lots of essay work on top of trying to keep up with this reading)

I'm not sure about CAPD. Have never been tested for that actually, but I do know reading has a similar effect of trying to learn from someone speaking. What is said doesn't match up with the book and vice versa, and I cannot comprehend at all. I can attach images to words like "paper", etc., but I cannot retain things when it comes to names and dates of people... I dunno what my deal is, lol.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's necessary to read every word assigned. Machiavelli is famous for pretty much one reason, find out what that reason is. What does your prof want you to learn about ethics as related to Machiavelli? And even more important, what do you think? College is all about having your own opinion. Even if you haven't done all the reading, if you know the basics and have an opinion/stance about it, that will get you far.

Tis true. I'm worried about not reading and comprehending it all for one reason. Plato. lol. The way he did the Republic is we would read over like, 2-3 chapters a night, then go to class and discuss almost all of the things that were mentioned in the book... that right there is nice, because that helps with comprehension a lot, but I feel horrible for not actually being able to keep up with the reading part. Chances are, like he did with the Republic, we are going to be breaking it down, a paragraph at a time and talking about everything that was said. He pulls abstract things as well out of the text. In "The Republic", he made a huge deal out of Thrasymacus saying that Socrates needed a wet nurse, even though there was no mention of that afterwards. I am unsure what I'm going to need to do at the end of reading this book, but I do know that an essay is assigned for the Republic, which I will be trying to work on while keeping up with the reading in Machiavelli and keeping up with 3 other classes, lol. This isn't impossible to accomplish, it is just very very difficult to comprehend to begin with.

This teacher doesn't really talk about our point of view at all. I would have done well with the Republic most likely if that had anything to do with it, lol.... but he has made it clear he could really care less what we have to say unless we are asked >.< I'm sure he might be a bit nicer if approached, but I'm pretty nervous about going near him after that first day...

OMG that sounds like a nightmare class. The kind of professor who thinks his is the only class that matters, because there's no way you can do all that reading for that class plus have time for any others. Well at least you'll really know these classics by the end of the class. And you can avoid him and, as my favorite classmate always reminds me, you get to evaluate the teacher at the end of the semester! Not that that will help you now.

A suggestion for the essay: focus on one thing. If you can't read the whole thing, pick one part you got something out of, and really focus on it.

I remember taking a philosophy class where we weren't allowed to have an opinion - reminds me of your professor. Actually this guy was a TA - even worse. I'm so glad I'm done with undergrad - grad school really is more civilized.

lol, first day of school he did mention that his class was very important. I think it is a very interesting class, so I'll keep plugging away at it, but it is rough. In his first lecture, he mentioned that if we decided to go into philosophy, people will laugh at us because it is seen as useless, lol. Maybe that is what is going on with him, but he also said "Here is my e-mail address if you need anything... DON'T need me!" lol. I'm kind of torn with the class. I don't like his approach too much-somebody in class asked him yesterday if we were actually going to talk about ethics, lol! But he said that he had taught from the text before, and people tend to find the views closest to their own and they stick to it, so they never bother looking at things from another point of view or thinking about things that they normally don't think about. He also mentioned that when going by the textbook, you often wind up stuck looking for topics like abortion and such which just leads to classes full of arguments rather than civil conversation, lol. So I guess I see his point as well-maybe I'm lucky that I have any interest at all, lol. I feel really bad for people who are only taking this class because it is required-we got the tough teacher, lol.

I wound up dropping the history class, though, so I'll have more time to focus and can get the learning disability assessment before I go back into that class.

I can't memorize for anything.

I can only attempt to find connections and mimic the though process.

When learning, I either focus on the text or the lecture. I have the same problem with connecting the two if they are drastically different, like you said.

Many times, I have to read the text... barely understand it... and then start to develop my own explanation that fits the way I think.

It's like all this information can only get stored in my head if I have the right key, otherwise it just goes in and doesn't stick.

Heh, for tests and such... I usually just cram the hour or so before class. If I attempt to memorize anything much before that... I'll forget it all.

lol-EXACTLY! Since I dropped the History class, I'm just dealing with the Ethics class. It isn't terrible, but he keeps asking questions about the last book we read and to be honest, I can't remember any of it for anything, lol. The other day he picked up a dry erase marker and handed it to a random person, told them to write the subjects of each chapter from the last book on the board... now when I go in, I immediately start praying that he doesn't pick me, lol.

He probably is having trouble attaching meaning to what he's learning, either way that he's learning it. I've always had this problem as well. Especially if it's something that I'm not really interested in. But if it's something that I chose to learn about I have a much easier time attaching meaning to it. I never understood why I always had so much trouble, until I started learning about AS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning